And here I tip my hat, and admit the defeat I have suffered, lol.
So, here is where I want feedback on my analysis of what went wrong, when, and what to do about it.
USSR turn:
My First mistake here, in my opinion, was misstacking the russian sub with the UK transport, and the russian transport with the UK BB and TR. Given that you needed to hit the Gibraltar BB, and that you want a damage soak for that, it is predictable that you would not be sending your submarine after the lone UK transport, and that would have only left a fighter as the means to killing it, and the russian sub is of no use in that battle!
So, with RR, I really only have the choices to do a conventional stacking of the USSR fleet with the UK fleet, or splitting them up, but the sub and transport should be switched, in order to make the German player have to think twice about sending a single fighter out against 2 transports, but even then, they still only defend on a ‘1’, so risking a fighter may or may not be a deterrent.
On the ground, the whole idea was to defend the allied IC, and allow for some ground warfare with the Axis by the UK and US, without needing a naval force to bring them in, and then just fly in the fighters and bombers as needed.
UK turn:
First mistake, was deciding on a starting strategy before the game, just to be able to test it out, predicated upon my mistaken belief that you were not going to be hitting the UK home fleet on turn one, based upon your other game with Avin.
Second, building two IC with the UK was a mistake.
Third, not hitting your BB and TR the 1st turn was another (I panicked, what with the German sub being in my seazone!) In my not so sharp mind, I was mixing both sets of rules up from classic>>cannot place in enemy seazone, and Subs can submerge, so building a proper fleet was not something I could do on the first turn! (I know, I know). :)
Instead, I wasted time trying (unsuccessfully) to sink a sub with my bomber, rather than using it and my Indian fighter to hit the ships that actually mattered. The problem with that very rare German sub in the UK sea zone, is I have to hit it before placing my buys, so while I could (an probably should) have used one fighter on both your transport and sub, I got fixated on placing two complexes on turn one, and landing both UK fighters in Karelia, and never mind that splitting them up wouldn’t have prevented this.
Playing against a player with your level of experience and skill (which exceeds mine, let’s be honest), I’m thinking that the more conventional Carrier/Transport buy is probably the most solid move I should be making with the UK turn 1, but playing with RR and regular dice opens the way for, well, things like what happened in this game, actually.
Turn one, the Germans sank 2BB + 2TR + 1SS, & killed the tank and infantry comprising the UK’s Egyptian defense forces, while suffering only the loss of a single submarine. :)
For the USA:
Getting fixated on “Must build Complex in Asia” is a bad idea, especially when playing an opponent as skilled as you. My ‘normal’ USA 1 would be to buy 1 carrier and 2 transports for the Eastern USA sea zone, and offer the german player a fleet capable of defending itself against a single bomber, while flying the two fighters to the newly built UK carrier. However, this requires the Luftwaffe not to have cleansed the RN, without loss, on turn one. This would then be followed on turn two by the arrival of the US Pacific Fleet on the east coast, and thus setting up the viable (and very boring) ground unit shuttle service.
For defense against Japan, other than an all-in defense spending bill being rushed through congress as soon as an invasion is seen as possible, building ground forces in Western USA, and walking them up to Western Canada, and being able to shuttle them from there into Europe seems to be the thing to do.
*On a side note, I have used bing maps to try to find the ports and railways that would make this viable, but unless we are talking some very limited infrastructure needs, I have been unable to find this in the SW most Hudson Bay region. If you knowledge of such, I would enjoy a heads up on where to
look for this.
Also, it might be a great thing to include in your video series, as I’m sure that I was/am not the only A&A classic player unfamiliar with being able to pick up units from western canada be ships in the eastern canada seazone.*
So, I would like your thoughts on my turn one analysis, if you are willing to give it, as well as your own observations on my (mis)handling of the Allies?
This has been an eye-opener for me, as my fond memories of classic A&A “Battles in the Barracks”, played against my fellow ‘drunken infantry’ comrades-in-arms, are now exposed as what they were (being honest, here), and that was folks that never really knew how to play the game!
Like you, I would love to be able to find willing foes to play in Classic, and am interested in finding ways to make the game viable and fun for all skill levels of players. I don’t like RR, but agree that something needs to be done to balance the game, and think that one thing I would offer, that doesn’t involve depriving one player of their first turn attack, would be having a house rule/TripleA option, of removing the ability to share one’s allies ships, either carriers or transports, as this would enable the German players to attempt to contest the buildup of an unstoppable naval shuttle service.
My final USA turn is a great example of how not to fight a battle. A US bomber and infantry attack a single Japanese infantry defending in China. It took the server several turns to decide that, given the disparate forces, the first hit to be scored would be by the defending infantry! Having see that, and everything else that had gone on in the very short time of this game, I decided to stick around, and see if I could lose the bomber as well, without hitting the defending infantry, and sure enough, I did! :)